DON'T be fooled by the scoreline. The holders had to dig deep in a tense second half to hold onto a two-point lead and it was only in the last five minutes that they romped home with a brace of converted tries.

Much attention in this AIB All Ireland League game at Thomond Park yesterday was on hooker Jerry Flannery but the Munster and Ireland star came through unscathed, giving a workmanlike performance when he came on at the start of the second half.

Shannon led 17-8 at the break and with three tries to their credit, you would have banked on a bonus point victory for the home side. Within five minutes of the resumption that lead was down to two points thanks to a Brian McGovern try after a fine break by UCD's outstanding forward, Brian O'Neill.

It was nail-biting stuff for the home fans for the next 30 minutes. The introduction of the experienced Andrew Thompson improved matters for Mick Galwey's men and when it looked as if UCD might strike for a victory that always looked possible, Shannon responded in dramatic fashion with 14 points in five minutes.

On 75 minutes the home side put together their best passage of play of the day.

Jerry Flannery was twice involved with trademark drives from the tail of the maul, backs and forwards showed good handling skills before Andrew Finn went clear for a try under the posts.

The visitors were found lacking again three minutes later when Shannon prop Tony Buckley tore a big hole in their defence to set up the second phase. Fergal Walsh was up in support and the big second-row ran unchallenged to the posts.

The home side had showed early intent with a try on nine minutes. UCD spilled their own lineout 10 metres out and the ball fell kindly into the hands of prop Tony Buckley, who went over.

The holders were 12-0 to the good five minutes later;

Andrew Finn and Frankie McNamara combined down the left touchline to open up the UCD defence, a skip two pass from Tad Bennett put Mossier Lawler clear and his well-time pass to Stephen Kelly saw the winger go in at the corner.

UCD upped the tempo of their game and held possession for long periods before they eventually unlocked the Shannon defence. Impressive out-half Ian Kettle outstripped the cover to go past Kelly and McNamara and his pace took him over at the corner.

The visitors were now throwing the ball around at every opportunity and they reduced the leeway to 12-8 on 33 minutes when number eight Brian O'Neill made the important yards to force a penalty for hands in the rock and Fergus McFadden landed the easy kick.

Shannon went in search of a score from the restart and after a Kettle drop goal attempt went just wide of the upright, the champions responded with a try at the other end.

Kettle's clearance was blocked down, the ball ran loose and Shannon centre John Cogan accepted the gift to sell a sweet dummy and go over for the touchdown.

Tad Bennett was wide with the conversion.

UCD got a three-pointer chance on the stroke of half time only for McFadden's kick to come back off the upright.

SHANNON M Lawler; S Kelly, F McLoughlin, J Clogan, A Finn; T Bennett, F McNamara; L Hogan, TJ Hickey, T Buckley, F Walsh, P O'Brien, A Meaney, C McMahon, D Quinlan Subs J Flannery for Meaney, K Grif"n for Hogan, 40 mins; A Thompson for Bennett, 48 mins; D O'Donovan for McLoughlin, 65 mins UCD M Hastings; V Artimiev, F McFadden, K Lett, M Fanning; I Keatley, B O'Neill; J A Lee, C Geoghegan, B McGovern, K McLaughlin, R Mandeno, K Croke, G Murphy, S O'Brien Subs A Houlihan for Murphy, 5 mins; G Telford for McLaughlin, 55 mins Referee S McDowell, IRFU